11-15 March, 2024, Shanghai, China

The consultation meeting of the Informal Working Group (IWG) of the Technical Committee on Rules of Origin (TCRO) was held in Shanghai China from 11- 15 March sponsored by the Customs Cooperation Fund of China (CCF-China). This meeting was attracted 30 participants from 10 Member administrations, including the participants of the IWG, representatives of five WCO regions and the representative of the EU-WCO Rules of Origin (RoO) Africa Programme. The purpose of the meeting was to finalize the first phase of the feasibility study on the Certificate of Origin (CO) Interconnectivity Framework.  Ms. Zhengqing Ye, the Program Manager and Operation Manager of the CCF-China from ROCB A/P joined this meeting.

The opening ceremony started with video addresses by Ms. Gael Grooby, Acting Director of the Tariff and Trade Directorate, and Mr. Brendan O'Hearn, Deputy Director of the Procedures and Facilitation Sub-Directorate, WCO. Both of them emphasized that this consultation meeting is vital to the success of the feasibility study and the result of the study will advance the interconnectivity in the region. Mrs. Ding Nan, Director of the Office of Rules of Origin, General Administration of China Customs, welcomed all the participants and shared that China Customs had rich experience in establishing multiple Electronic Origin Data Exchange System (EODES) and was pleased to contribute to the feasibility study based on the experience. Ms. YE, the representative of the ROCB A/P, expressed the commitment for the continuous support for this feasibility study.

This workshop served as a valuable platform for the participants to review and provide input to refine the draft components of the feasibility study on Business Process Model and the e-CO dataset. Additionally, participants clarified the terminology and definition of authorities responsible for the transmission of e-CO data and the Declaration of Origin.

For more information, please contact at rocb@rocbap.org.